


Through The Cracks In The Ceiling

by AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Drama, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, re-post from 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-16
Updated: 2014-03-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 03:21:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17438981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell/pseuds/AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell
Summary: The reason Teresa Lisbon wants to become a cop is simple.





	Through The Cracks In The Ceiling

**Author's Note:**

> And a BIG special thank you goes to the wonderful clairebare for beta reading!

**Through The Cracks In The Ceiling**

**.**

**.**

The reason Teresa Lisbon wants to become a cop is simple.

She wants to be the one asking the questions instead of being the one questioned.

She has enough of living on the wrong side of town, enough of picking up her brothers at the police station because they stole chocolate and limonade at the groocery store. And she has more than enough of being the victim of her fathers pain, of being hit over and over again and having to lie to social services so she won’t end up in an even messier foster home than her own.

She works hard to raise her brothers and even more to be able to pay the bills. Keeps going to school, while working part time and studying her ass off to get herself a scholarship for college.

And even though she’s half a child, she already knows she’ll never be stupid enough to get pregnant or married. She’s seen enough to know better. The hope to get away from this nasty neighbourhood and this messed up life the only hope she has left.

.

She’s on her way to the top, a bright future right in front of her. When Patrick Jane walks into her life and everything changes.

He takes over her team in a heartbeat, ruins her reputation in less than a month and it’s almost funny how easy everything she worked so hard to get, starts falling apart.

She drags him along because Minelli makes clear that if she doesn’t she’ll get fired. She nods, leans back and watches the grieving widower ruin her life.

They scream and yell at each other for good measure and keep pushing and pulling until their both too exhausted to fight. They laugh and smile together, make fun of each other and sometimes there’s even a trustfall involved.

He saves her and she saves him, they lie for each other countless times and leave each other behind more than just once. They keep doing it for over a decade. Neither of them certain why.

If feels right, even though it’s wrong. Feels good even though it shouldn’t.

Sometimes he even allows her to catch a glimpse of the man he used to be and she’s ashamed, but can’t help think that the death of his family made him a better man.

Knows that if they had met before, she wouldn’t have given him a second thought. Maybe not even a first.

.

It ends with Agent Abbott.

An FBI Agent, arrogant and cocky as hell and if Teresa Lisbon still had her gun she would have shot him.

He looks at her with a self assured smile plastered over his face, accusing her of things he already knows she hasn’t done. Scolds her like a child, makes her look like a school girl in front of her former agents.

In return she acts like the stubborn teenage girl he claims her to be, like the spoiled kid she’s never been. Tells him what he wants to hear. Knows he wouldn’t believe the truth anyway.

And she wonders if it’s possible that she’ll get herself out of this mess if she confirms what everyone thinks anyway. After all she’s done for Jane, the least he can do is offer her a lie.

When they tell her that it’s over, that Red John is dead and Jane had run off to god knows where the only thing Teresa’s able to do is laugh.

_Sheriff McAlister? Really?_

She shakes her head at Abbott. Not willing to believe it. Sure Jane got it all wrong, sure that this is just another sham Red John pulled off. McAllister maybe had been a part of the Blake Acociation, but that man wouldn’t have been able to scare people over decades. Wouldn’t have been able to seduce woman over years to get what je wants. And he wouldn’t have killed a little girl in her sleep just to proove a point.

And even though Abbott keeps telling her about evidence and god knows what else, Teresa’s already convinced that one day the devil will rise from dead and come back to finish what he started.

She just hopes that when he does, she’s the first one who gets killed.

.

Cannon River is the most beautiful and most boring place Teresa Lisbon ever had to live.

But she won’t give Agent Abbott the satisfaction of telling him that when he shows up on her doorstep one sunny morning, to ask her if she’s heard from Jane.

Once again he’s eyeing her up and down and she doesn’t need to be a psychic to know that the only thing he really wants is to take her bend over on her office desk.

She smiles politly back at him, shrugs and tells him that she still hasn’t heard a thing.

_And why would she?_

He leaves with a shake of his head and she knows he’ll be back sooner or later anyway. Knows he can make her life a living hell if he wants to. After all he’s holding her career in his hands. Has enough evidence to take not only Jane down but her aswell.

The only reason he sends Agent Fisher and not Cho to get Jane back from the island, is to tease her. Teresa knows the second Jane calls her  _Kim_ and feels her own eyes lit up in anger. The satisfied grin spreading over Abbott’s face, enough to confirm her suspicions.

And Teresa just wishes Jane would have stayed on that god damn island for good.

.

When Abbott shows up on her doorstep all over again, she wants to slap him right across the face for more than one reason. But of course she doesn’t.

She stands in the doorframe of her house, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

He laughs, clearly amused by her behaviour. Tells her that Jane refusses to work for him until she joins his team too. The light she spots in his eyes telling her it’s what he’d already hoped for.

He makes clear that if she doesn’t he’s not only going to take down Jane but her as well. Makes clear that he knows that, that list Jane tries to threaten him with is only a ruse.

There’s not much for her to do but smile and nod. And pack up her things to follow him back to Austin.

.

At first Jane is beaming with life and joy and Teresa can’t help but be scared. It seems wrong, out of character. Not like Jane at all.

After a while she’s only annoyed and almost glad it’s Agent Fisher’s job to look after him and not hers anymore.

She watches the two of them bantering in the office, wonders why it feels like deja-vu.

Abbott keeps bossing her around, lets her stay back in the office just so he can watch her from his desk. He makes her do the paperwork while the others get to catch the bad guys.

Teresa is annoyed. Bored to death. But it’s her own fault after all and so she keeps her mouth shut.

It’s not like anyone would listen to her anymore anyway.

.

The only reason Teresa ends up on Abbott’s desk in the middle of the night, is because she’s finally sick of him telling her what to do. She has enough of being left behind, enough of being treated like a little girl. Enough of being tossed around.

So she does the only thing she knows will make him listen.

As soon as the last of her collagues has left the hallway she walks straight into his office, locks the door behind her and starts to pull down the blinds. The way he keeps asking her what the hell she’s doing, enough to brush away any doubts she might have had.

When she’s done shutting them out of public view, she grabs him by the collar of his button down and crashes her lips hard against his.

There’s no time for second thoughts, no time for hesitation. He grabs her roughly, pushes her up on his desk with one quick move. His lips never leaving hers, his fingers already tearing at her clothes.

The only thing she hadn’t expected had been the possibility that she might like it.

But to her own surprise she does.

.

After that he stops telling her what to do and just lets her decide for herself. Instead of yelling, he offers her a smile and Agent Fisher’s shocked expression is more than Teresa dared to hope for.

He offers her a new job, a better position along with a new office. Tells her to call him Dennis when they’re alone.

She gets her own team, a shiny black SUV all for herself, a new gun and even a better phone.

Fisher is furious, Jane confussed. And Cho amuses her by asking if he can borrow her car.

Teresa just smiles.

.

At first they only meet in his office right after dark, but one night he asks her out for dinner instead of taking her on his desk.

They end up in his apartment later that night, sharing a bottle of wine in front of his fireplace, talking and talking for hours. And when he finally bends down to kiss her, Teresa wonder why she ever hated him in the first place.

It’s Grace who asks her if she’d fallen in love with someone. Tells her that she changed, that she seems happier.

Teresa smiles, hands the little girl on the blanket between them her doll. Shakes her head. Nods. Shrugs.

Maybe she is. Maybe she isn’t.

Teresa isn’t sure.

She won’t get married after all, won’t have kids. She never wanted to and Dennis doesn’t either. They’re both married to their jobs, both comitted to what they do best. And that means catching bad guys day and night.

In Dennis she finally found someone who understands. Who wants the same things she does. Who doesn’t need to be told twice, infact she never has to say anything at all. He always knows what she wants anyway.

Grace laughs, but Teresa just smiles. For her, that’s more than enough.

.

It’s Jane who takes her aside one day, tells her that he made a mistake. Tells her that he thinks he killed the wrong guy again. That he thinks Red John is still alive.

Teresa stares at him, sits down on the brench beside him and tells herself to breathe.

Jane looks broken, shattered. His eyes filled with pain and sorrow. And Teresa can’t help but notice that he’s wearing a three pieces suit again.

She looks away and down to the pigeons at her feet. Feels her life slipping through her fingers.

And she wonders how long it will take before her reputation will be blown away, how long it will take before her team turns their backs on her.

Wonders how long it will take for her relationship to be destroyed. Her life to be ruined all over again.

She laughs. Wants to throw up and cry and scream.

But instead she smiles. Nods, promises Jane that she’ll meet him after work.

He gives her a hug and a smile, tells her thank you and she cancels dinner with Dennis on her way back to the office.

Thinking that she’s really going to miss that car.

.

Teresa has only half an hour before she wants to meet Jane and she has to hurry if she wants to take a shower first. Barefoot she stumbles up the steps to her bedroom.

It’s a bloody red face painted on the wall behind her bed, that makes her stop dead in her tracks.

She’s standing in the doorframe, her hand still on the doorknob.

And she knows she should be scared, knows she should feel the need to scream or run. But where’s the point?

_She wouldn’t even make it down the stairs._

At least in the end, she got one wish granted.

The wish of being the first.

**.**

**.**


End file.
